Heroes United: The Beginning
by Indianne Jones
Summary: Planet Fuse is approaching. To save the Earth, the planet's different heroes must come together and help to defend their home, while simultaneously working to train new heroes. Can they manage to do it?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's in this. (No, this is _**not**_ a BenXOC fic. Or, at least, that _**won't**_ be the primary storyline. There will probably be a little bit of DexterXOC AND BenXOC, but that _**won't**_ be the primary plotline, either, and the OC's are _**not**_ the main characters, even though they _may_ have moderately-sized roles.)

Chapter One 

'_I'll __**kill**__ Gwen when I find her._'

An irate, brown-haired, green-eyed teenager stormed through the lobby of the towering DexLabs building. To say that Benjamin Tennyson was furious was a pathetically drastic understatement, but it would have to do, because there simply was not a word that correctly conveyed the level his fury was climbing toward.

The cause of his anger? Simple. His cousin had volunteered him to work training new recruits for the coming war against the approaching Planet Fuse. Dexter, the owner of DexLabs, had detected the coming threat and, though nothing had happened yet, Earth was not taking any chances. The different military powers of the world would train and prepare as many adults as they could.

The teenagers and children of the world had a different idea. The military had never faced a real invasion attempt, and neither had the children, but the children were the ones who seemed to put two and two together on the fact that training and discipline and soldiers who did nothing but follow orders to the letter were not the way to win this war.

It was probably a Kids Next Door (KND) operative who first realized this, now that Ben really thought about it. Whoever had first realized it deserved credit, though, because they were right. Following strict orders and nothing more would get them nowhere, even if the soldiers were well-trained and well-armed. What they needed was recklessness, energy, free thinking and creativity, **some** order and a **little** discipline, and, most of all, _**unpredictability**_.

And these were things that children had much more of than the adults (although the order and discipline were probably the exceptions).

Luckily, though, he had been able to avoid giving a speech at the rally the night before. If he_ had_ given a speech, he probably would have messed up, or stumbled over his words. At least, he was convinced he would have. Of course, arguing out his point with Abby Lincoln (Numbuh Five of the KND) and Mandy was practically a full out debate. He couldn't remember how he had succeeded, but he did know that he wanted to steer clear of Abby for at least a week and Mandy for at least three months.

Nigel Uno, Numbuh One of the KND, met him by the elevator. "You got roped into this, too, Ben?"

"My cousin volunteered me," he growled, hitting the 'down' arrow with much more force than was necessary. "And I plan on killing her for it."

Nigel made a face, following Ben through the doors into the elevator. After the doors closed and Ben punched another poor, unoffending button with undeserving force, Numbuh One cautiously made another inquiry.

"What did she volunteer you for?"

"Training new recruits, with you and Numbah Four. I _wish_ she had volunteered me for the frontlines."

In Nigel's opinion, Ben's irritation was instantly understandable. They had been recruiting and training kids and (much to the disdain of the KND) teenagers since the first sign of Planet Fuse approaching, three months ago. Ben had temporarily assisted them at first, but had made excuses to get out of it not long after.

It was very easy to get _very_ tired of some of the egos they ran into. Besides, he was _not_ looking forward to arguing with the brattier kids about how playing war and fighting games with their friends outside and on the Wii didn't substitute for actual _training._

The first kid who tried to argue with him that being the best paintball or Nerf gun war player in their hometown meant that they could skip the basics of gun-handling was getting kicked out. *_Be a thirty-seventh degree black belt with military gun-handling training or something, __**then**__ you can skip the basics,_* Ben grumbled mentally, exaggerating the numbers. Heck, he didn't know how high a black belt went, and quite frankly, he didn't really care at the moment.

"I don't plan on letting them argue with me," Numbuh One said, breaking into Ben's thoughts. A smirk crossed his face. "Any who even_ try_ get to make a run in the obstacle room, with Numbuh Four yelling at them the whole time, and maybe even having one of the Kanker sisters chasing them through it. Or I could send them to the Scotsman, so that _he_ can knock some sense into them through training."

They stopped a floor above their destination and a few people got on the elevator.

"Hey, wait! Hold the elevator!" A girl a few inches shorter than Ben with bright green eyes and shaggy-cut, shoulder-length, brown came running into the elevator just as the doors closed. She wore a blue kitten hoodie and black pants, with blue shoes. Ben and Numbuh One almost laughed at the girl, who looked to be about fifteen, since she had almost run into the doors, and then almost got caught in them.

Both boys had met this girl, Cody Xeneon, before. She had been in the earliest recruits, so Ben and Nigel had trained her. Since, at first, there hadn't been many trainees, the few they had were able to get a lot of training done in a short amount of time. Cody and three others had excelled quickly through the ranks, since they focused themselves on their training.

The doors opened and they were met by Wallabee Beetles (Numbuh Four of the KND) and a tan boy about Ben's height with dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, with messy bangs. He had crystal blue eyes and wore blue.

"Hey, Ray. You got pulled in, too?" Ben asked, while Nigel began an in depth conversation with Wally.

The boy grimaced. Ray Chemburn was Ben's age, sixteen, and very similar in his mannerisms, only a little less emotion driven, and not a smoothie addict.

"Unfortunately. Any sign of Cyril or Zara?" The blue-eyed boy looked almost desperate when he asked this. Cyril was his younger sister, age fourteen. Zara Cyberphoton, age sixteen, was Ray's best and closest friend. Ben, who had helped train both Cyril and Zara and knew them pretty well, shook his head.

"I've been checking every few hours, and when I can't check, I have someone else checking," Ben assured him. Ray hung his head. "Cyril'll be fine, Ray. Honestly, I feel bad for anything that gets in _her_ way."

Cyril and Zara had participated in a time jump experiment conducted by Dexter, and messed up by DeeDee. Ray and Cody, and at least a hundred other kids and teens, had participated as well.

The time jump sequence had been messed up and they were all sent much too far into the future. Most of them had returned to this time by now, but they had all arrived in the future in a scattered sequence. Ray was one of the first to arrive the future, and one of the first to return to the past.

From the reports of the others who had more recently returned, Cyril and Zara hadn't arrived in the future yet.

"Well, let's get started, okay?" Nigel asked, purposely interrupting the conversation.

"Yeah, because we should try and get this over with," Wally added, eyeing the clearly incompetent new recruits.

"Good idea," Ben agreed, making a face. 

I know it's not that great, but I'm still editing it. I'll probably be randomly sticking in some random characters at random points.

Constructive criticism is welcome. Flames are not and people who flame will be ignored.


	2. Chapter 2

Not a great chapter, but here's chapter 2

Chapter Two

Two weeks. He had been attempting to train incompetent idiots for _two weeks_.

*_**Shoot**__ me,_* Ben thought. *_Shoot me __**now**__. __**Please**__**!**_*

He sighed, flopping down in a chair in the cafeteria of the DexLabs building they were using. With so many people in the building, the cafeteria was pretty much just one floor almost completely open with a kitchen and a whole bunch of tables. Ben allowed himself to fall forward until his head hit the table with a semi-loud _bang!_

"You okay, Ben?" Hoagie Gilligan, Numbuh Two of the KND, asked, sitting down with a tray of food.

Rex sat down a moment after. "Seriously, you don't look so good."

Numbuh Five sat down also, followed by Juniper Lee.

"Training new recruits," He said shortly. He instantly got four groans of sympathy. All of them had been there before. "It's been a rough two weeks."

"Hold up. You been workin' with them for _two weeks?_ The same kids?" Abby asked incredulously. Ben nodded.

"I get stuck with the idiots who are apparently _**allergic**_ to following directions, so our training weapons are plastic swords, wooden swords, toy lightsabers, water guns, and Nerf guns."

This received a few laughs.

"Sad thing? I'm _serious_."

The laughs stopped.

Sighing again, Ben lifted his head and looked at his table-mates. "Aside from the training, it's still been a rough two weeks."

They all nodded, agreeing silently. In the past two weeks, Buttercup, the green-clad Power Puff Girl, had gone missing, they were still missing about fifteen kids who had been sent to the future, Cyril and Zara were still missing, Ray and Cody had gone missing while on a mission, along with about six kids from Ben's hometown, and neither Kevin nor Gwen nor his grandpa had reported in for nine days.

All in all, this ended up leaving the brunette fraught with worry. And, to make matters worse, Grandpa Max wanted him to try and get to know Dexter, the Boy Genius who worked on inventions in his laboratory all day, ordering everybody else to keep out.

Most of the people there had never seen Dexter before. Ben and Dexter had met a few times before (Ben's grandpa's idea), but they hadn't exactly clicked with each other. Dexter was scientifically driven. Ben was smoothie-tifically driven.

Their most recent encounter ended with Ben being thrown out of the lab by Dexbots after stubbornly entering, getting kicked out, and re-entering the lab about sixteen times while Dexter was trying to do an experiment.

And why was he so persistent? He left his smoothie in the lab the first time he was kicked out and kept trying to go back and get it. The final result: Ben managed to retrieve his smoothie, but when he was thrown out (literally) by the Dexbots, it spilled all over him.

"I gotta go," Ben sighed, standing up and walking toward the elevators. As much of a pain as he was sure this was bound to be, he couldn't help but grin to himself. Despite this always being an overall pain, he always made it more of a pain for Dexter than himself, making it entertaining for himself in the long run.

Ben glared at the keypad. *_**Why**__ does he change the code every __**three days**__?_* He brought his com unit up to his mouth. "Dex? Code, please…"

He heard an irritated sigh and inferred (correctly) that he was not one of the people Dexter was currently most keen to see.

"_C'mon_, Dex, if I don't at least _try_ to get along with you, Grandpa's not gonna let me live to see my eighteenth birthday…" That wasn't a lie.

"Fine. It's 5847.628." Dexter said after thinking for a moment on whether or not to let him in or let him get into trouble. What had caused him to make his decision was the knowledge that Professor Utonium wouldn't let _him_ live to his _six_teenth birthday if _he_ didn't try to get along with _Ben_.

Ben punched in the numbers before Dexter could change the code on him (because he had done this before). The doors opened and he walked in, carrying a smoothie with him, as always.

For reasons that neither Ben nor Dexter could fathom, people who knew that the boys didn't get along referred to their constant bickering as sibling rivalry. The boys, however, insisted that, no, they just hated each other.

Ben sipped his smoothie as he wandered over to Dexter's work station and looked over the redhead's shoulder. "Whatcha workin' on?"

"New adaptations for the Null-Void technology. Your grandfather confirmed that it will work against the approaching Planet Fuse," Dexter said shortly.

"How'd he confirm it?"

"Remember the prototype he took to the Plumers?" Dexter asked, not looking up from his work. "It disrupted the biological make-up of the creatures. It'll work. They tested it when the enemy attacked Neptune."

"Planet Fuse attacked Neptune _already?_"

Ben was shocked and almost dropped his smoothie. According to the timeline established by Dexter and Professor Utonium, that shouldn't have happened for at _least_ two more months. That meant that Planet Fuse would reach Earth earlier than originally thought.

"We have to speed up training for the new recruits."

Dexter half-glared at Ben out of the corner of his eye. "Are you going to stand there and chatter all night, or are you going to at least _attempt_ to make yourself useful?"

Ben returned the glare, before grabbing an extra wheeled chair that was nearby. "Fine. What do I do?"

Dexter blinked. He had expected Ben to leave, not sit down and actually want to help. "…I am not sure what you _could_ do. You are not exactly experienced in inventing. Or creating and building the technology I do."

Ben shrugged. "So? Teach me."

"Fine. Hand me that wrench. And get rid of the smoothie before you spill it on something."

"No way. I'm not getting rid of the smoothie."

"Get rid of it."

"No."

"Get rid of it, or get out."

"But -"

"Just do it."

"…Fine…I didn't even get halfway through with that one…" Anybody who saw Ben at the moment would've laughed at him, because the brunette was actually pouting. "I _really_ don't like you right now."

"The feeling's mutual." 

At about three in the morning, Professor Utonium came down to the lab to check on Dexter and Ben. This was mostly because Ben had gone down at around three in the afternoon, and had yet to return to the upper floors. When he had noticed this, he decided that it may be a good idea to see what they were doing, since the boys' mutual dislike of each other was well known even to those who had never seen either of them.

Professor Utonium stepped out of the elevator and approached the closed, heavy doors to Dexter's laboratory and swiftly punched the code into the keypad. Walking in, he headed toward Dexter's usual work station. Once in sight of the boys, the Professor stopped midstride and couldn't help but smile.

Dexter and Ben were both slumped forward, arms and heads resting on the work table, both fast asleep and oblivious to Utonium's presence. Apparently, they had managed to be civil with each other long enough for the both of them to fall asleep.

Dexter was still, save for his breathing, glasses askew and half off of his face. He had his arms folded, head resting on his arms, still loosely clutching a wrench in his hand.

Ben was muttering in his sleep. He turned his head, and there was an imprint of the Omnitrix on the now-showing side of his face, since he was also using his folded arms as a pillow and had been resting the left side of his head on his left wrist.

Rather than wake them, the Professor turned and left, smiling to himself. Maybe there was hope of the boys being friends, after all.

-  
I know this chapter's not that great, but oh, well.


	3. Chapter 3

Epicly short chapter, I know sorry. 

Chapter Three

Ben groaned as someone shook his shoulder, trying to wake him. Assuming it was either his mom or Gwen, he turned his head, whining. "Five more minutes…"

"Wake up, already!"

Ben's head shot up. That was definitely not a voice he was used to being woken up by. For one thing, neither his mother nor Gwen had a Russian accent.

He was nose to nose with Dexter. Looking around, Ben realized he wasn't in his room at home. Nor was he in his living quarters in the DexLabs building.

He yawned, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "Whe' a' I?"

The redhead blinked slowly, trying to comprehend the brunette's words. "Um…what…?"

"Where am I?" Ben repeated, this time without the yawn.

"In my laboratory! You fell asleep, idiot!" Dexter snapped accusingly.

"You crashed before I did. I saw you asleep just before I fell out," Ben said with a smirk. "What time is it, anyway?"

"Eleven in the morning."

Ben's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and he was on his feet in an instant, running for the doors. "Crap! I was supposed to be on the training floor at seven! Nigel and Wally are going to _murder_ me!"

Ben tried to slip out of the elevator unnoticed, but failed miserably. The instant he stepped out, he found himself under an angry stare from Nigel. Despite Nigel only being about eleven, while Ben was sixteen, something about being on the receiving end of a disapproving or angry look from the leader of Sector V was disconcerting, even for the Omnitrix wielder.

"…Um…hi…?"

Ben could almost _feel_ the irritated stare behind those sunglasses narrow into a glare. *_Oh, man, I'm in for it big time…_* he thought, grimacing.

"…'Hi'? You leave us here with these idiots for _four hours_ and all you can say is 'hi'?" Numbuh One glared for a moment more, and then smirked, looking at Numbuh Four before returning his gaze to Ben. "Well, then, I guess we can leave _you_ to handle them for the rest of today's session. See you at four."

The brunette groaned as he enviously watched Nigel and Wally leave, before turning to face the recruits he would be tormented by for the next five hours. *_Help…_*

After going through the torture of training recruits all day, and then listening to Nigel chew him out for being four hours late, Ben decided to turn in early, around eight.

He went straight to his room and crashed on his bed, still in his clothes. The way he saw it, he was too tired to bother bugging Dexter today, and he was positive that the Whiz Kid would be glad to get through a night without Ben either looking over his shoulder or causing trouble. He was right, really.

*_Besides,_* he thought, grinning as he started to get drowsy, *_last I heard, DeeDee was doing my 'job' for me._*

-

I KNOW it's short. Sorry! Oh, and, action-wise, things'll pick up soon.


End file.
